Press Box

No tryouts needed for Team USA

So much for the training camp competition for the final spots on the Olympic team. The U.S. will pick its squad without a tryout.

The Americans have changed their plans and will select the 12 players headed to Beijing before they report to Las Vegas later this month.

The original idea called for the team to have potentially 16 players in camp and cut down to 12 on June 30.

"The staff really is more interested in getting down so that they can get to work in terms of preparation. We have switched our thinking," USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said Tuesday.

"Our plan is to go ahead and announce our team sometime before we get to Las Vegas."

Colangelo said the announcement would likely come after the completion of the NBA Finals. The Americans are set to begin workouts on the campus of UNLV on June 28.

*Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson had arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle Tuesday and is expected to be ready for training camp.

*A $300,000 lawsuit that accused former Trail Blazer Zach Randolph of battering and harassing a man he thought had given information to police about ex-teammate Qyntel Woods has been dropped.

Both sides declined to say if there was a cash settlement. A trial had been set to begin Monday.

Robert Bacote filed suit against Woods and Randolph, now with the Knicks, in October 2006. He said the pair wrongly suspected him of telling police two years earlier that Woods abused animals.